


And I Will Give You Honeysuckles

by lordbyronsbloomers



Category: Maleficent (2014)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-19
Updated: 2014-06-19
Packaged: 2018-01-27 16:04:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1716506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lordbyronsbloomers/pseuds/lordbyronsbloomers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Queen Leah doesn't die that night, though she sorely wants to.</p><p>After all, what reason has she to live? Her daughter sent away, her people suffering from famine and hardship, all while her husband obsesses over a curse that she knows cannot be unbroken. Leah would like nothing more than to close her eyes and forget the nightmare forever. </p><p>But she doesn't die. Through the gloom of the feverish night, a voice reaches out to her, and it tells her to live.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And I Will Give You Honeysuckles

Queen Leah doesn't die that night, though she sorely wants to.

After all, what reason has she to live? Her daughter sent away, her people suffering from famine and hardship, all while her husband obsesses over a curse that she knows cannot be unbroken. Leah would like nothing more than to close her eyes and forget the nightmare forever. 

But she doesn't die. Through the gloom of the feverish night, a voice reaches out to her, and it tells her to live.

 _For what?_  she asks.

 _For Aurora_ , it says.

And so Leah lives, if one can call this living.

***

Aurora returns to the palace on her sixteenth birthday, and Leah pleads with her handmaid to let her out of bed.

"I am fine, I am fine," Leah says, brushing away a helping hand as she attempts to stand.

Maria, however, is unsure. "My lady, you are not strong enough."

"I will always be strong enough when it comes to Aurora," Leah retorts, though her shaking limbs seem to say otherwise. 

She dresses slowly, going through the nearly forgotten motions - it has been years since Leah has worn anything but a nightgown. She stares into her closet, and eventually chooses a golden-hued gown that ties with a white ribbon at the waist. It is an outfit Leah hopes her dear Aurora will be proud to see her in. As a final touch, Maria wraps a blue scarf around Leah's head in some attempt to hide the stark fact that her hair is falling out.

She distracts Maria with a complaint that she has the chills, and as Maria bends over the fireplace to stoke the logs, Leah slips into the palace corridor. Though Leah has not visited Aurora's bedchamber for many years, she has memorized the path to it by heart. She still remembers the day she convinced Stefan to put their darling baby in the room at end of the corridor. With its windows facing both East and West, Leah had dreamt of sitting with their future child in a rocking chair, watching the sun rise and set. It is a sweet memory, though it never came to be. 

When Leah arrives outside Aurora's doorway, however, all her plans to see her daughter come to a halt. A palace guard bars the room and does not so much as budge when she approaches.

"I am here to see Aurora," she says, though her voice does not sound as firm as she had intended.

"Your Highness," the guard bows after a moment, as if he hardly recognized her at first. "The King has given orders that no one shall see the princess until Maleficent has been vanquished."

"But I am her mother."

The guard does not respond - he simply looks into the space just above her head in silence.

"Very well," Leah says.

She climbs the two hundred and ninety stairs to the tower, though she knows Maria will chide her for it later. By the time she reaches the top, her breath is short and ragged, and so Leah waits outside the doorway until she regains her composure. When she finally works up the strength to enter, she cannot help but let out a soft gasp at what she sees.

She finds Stefan sitting where he always sits, though she can hardly believe it is him at first. He is much changed - his beard unkept and greying, his skin ashen and wrinkled. There is a vacant look in his eye as he stares at the glass case that displays the godforsaken wings of Maleficent like trophies.

"You should be in bed," Stefan finally says, though he does not turn to look at her. 

“Let me see Aurora, Stefan,” Leah pleads, ignoring his request.

Stefan keeps his gaze fixed on the horrendous wings in silence.

“Let me see her.” Leah closes the distance between them so that she may tug at his sleeve, willing him to look at her. "Please."

He turns on her, holding Leah in his sight for the first time in many years. She shudders. There is a strange gleam in his bloodshot eyes - Leah wonders if it is madness. “I am doing this to protect her," he says roughly. 

“Let me see her,” she whispers. “I beg you.”

They stare at one another, a strange emotion clouding Stefan's face. For a fleeting moment, Leah believes that he will relent.

It passes.

He turns back towards the ghastly wings, and seems to forget Leah is there.

She follows his gaze, and for one horrific moment, she thinks she sees the wings shudder within their glass encasement. 

***

Leah knows.

She knows even before the pixies opens their mouths and says, "Aurora pricked her finger."

She sees it on their faces - in the hollow look of their eyes, in the way the corners of their mouths tug down.

"Is she sleeping?" Leah hears herself ask.

The pixies nod their little heads and Leah feels as if her world has ceased to be. 

***

She wanders the throne room for hours. The daylight fades, and moonbeams take its place - they shine feebly through the stained glass windows, casting strange shadows on the walls. As Leah walks, she thinks of her Coronation Day, some thirty years previous. That was many years before Stefan came into her life. It had been a happy day, full of song and merriment. 

She had hoped to one day throw a ball in honor of Aurora's own coronation as princess. It is fruitless, Leah supposes, to think on that now. Still, she imagines what that day would have been like - dancing, feasts, and her sweet daughter's laughter. She almost smiles at the thought. Her musings are sweet - but like everything beautiful, as she has learned throughout her life, they end abruptly and without warning. A dark shadow falls across the floor.

Leah remembers such a shadow from sixteen years before, on the day that she counts as the darkest of her life. All breath leaves her. 

She turns slowly to see the fearsome horned fairy looming in the shadows of the doorway. She knows she should be afraid of Maleficent, but all Leah feels is a hot stab of rage in her chest.

"Your Highness," Maleficent says, with a slight bow of her head that Leah takes for sarcasm.

She does not know where the sudden burst of strength comes from, but Leah finds herself striding forward and slapping Maleficent across the face before she can stop herself. The sound of her hand coming into contact with Maleficent's cheek echoes throughout the cavernous throne room.

Maleficent's face is like marble - cold and unyielding - and the action stings Leah's hand. She looks at it, then up at Maleficent, who stares straight back at her. Leah cannot read the expression on Maleficent's face. Confusion, perhaps. Or doubt. Whatever it is, it is not the rage Leah had expected.

“You took my daughter from me," Leah says, hating that her voice is shaking so.

“I am sorry," Maleficent says. 

The sincerity in her voice makes Leah sick. She strikes her again.

For whatever reason, Maleficent does not fight back, which only serves to fuel Leah's anger. She hits Maleficent until she can hardly hold herself up anymore. When she can no longer strike at the fairy, Leah instead holds tight to her, and surprises them both with tears. She sobs into Maleficent's shoulder and, to Leah's confusion, Maleficent places a comforting hand upon her back. 

At the gentle gesture, Leah looks up into Maleficent's face which, she is thankful to find, is not filled with pity. Rather, there is an understanding in Maleficent's eyes that Leah can hardly even begin to comprehend. Those eyes, that flash rainbow like fish scales in sunlight, used to hold nothing but loathing. But now? Oh, Leah does not know.

She feels that it could take a lifetime to fully understand the expression Maleficent wears on her face, but a soft voice that reminds Leah of flickering starlight interrupts her from her perusal of the fairy's face. “Mother?” it says. 

Leah looks over Maleficent's shoulder and sees a blonde girl standing in the doorway, a raven perched atop her shoulder. Leah looks from the girl to Maleficent, to whom she is still clinging. Something inside her stirs. 

“Aurora?” she whispers. The girl nods.

Leah's knees go weak at the realization that this is indeed her daughter, and she is grudgingly thankful that Maleficent is holding her up. Aurora hurries forward and embraces Leah, taking the burden of her weight from Maleficent. They stand there together for a long while, Leah gripping Aurora as though she never intends to let her go. When she feels tears on her neck, however, she releases Aurora and holds her out at arms length. Aurora's eyes are red and puffy, just as Leah imagines hers are. 

"Do not cry, my darling," Leah says.

"They are happy tears," Aurora laughs, wiping them away with the back of her hand. 

Leah laughs as well. She reaches out a hand to wipe away a stray tear on Aurora's face, and keeps it there, lightly cradling her daughter's cheek. "How?" Leah asks softly. "How are you awake?" 

Until now, Aurora has not taken her eyes off her mother - but now Leah sees that Aurora cannot help but looks towards Maleficent. “Maleficent," Aurora says, "She - she saved my life, Mother." 

Leah's arms drop to her side. She turns to Maleficent, who has been occupying herself by petting the raven which is now perched on her shoulder. But when those words leave Aurora's mouth, Maleficent looks up at Aurora with a familiar expression. Leah sees a devotion in Maleficent's eyes that she herself understands - a parent's love for their child. Quite suddenly, it all makes sense. 

“Forgive me," Leah says hastily, shame coloring her cheeks. She looks down at her hands, the hands that had struck Maleficent's face and body just moments before. To Leah's surprise, she feels a bony hand cup her face and lift it upwards. 

“It is I who should be asking for forgiveness, Leah," Maleficent says, looking deep into Leah's eyes. "Yes, I came to love Aurora as a daughter - but that is only because I took her away from you. For that - for that I must apologize from the bottom of my heart." 

Leah stares back into the eyes of the women she has learned to despise these past sixteen years. She feels a rage boil up inside her, and then die down just as quickly. She swallows.

"You saved my daughter," Leah says. “The past is forgiven.”

*** 

 _A dragon in the palace!_  Leah has not known such excitement in all her lifetime. Were she not so sick, she wonders if she could pick up a sword and end the attack against Maleficent herself. Instead, Leah collapses onto the cold stone staircase to the tower, and tries to catch her breath. 

Aurora, who is young and healthy, tugs at Leah's arm. “Mother, come—“

“Aurora—"

“We must go faster, Mother," Aurora urges. There is a brilliant flush in her cheek - from the heat of the flames or from excitement and anger, Leah cannot tell. "Father will kill her.”

Leah knows what Aurora says is true - Stefan has become an unmerciful man in his old age. Though it pains Leah to be parted from her daughter again, she knows what must be done. "I will wait here, Aurora, while you free Maleficent's wings."

Aurora looks unsure, as if she would rather not leave her mother's side. "Are you certain?"

"Yes, my dear." Leah reaches up and touches Aurora's hand. "I believe in you." 

Aurora swallows, then nods. "Then I will do it." She squeezes her mother's hand, as if for good luck. At this, Leah smiles.

“Your father will be no match for her when she has her wings back.”

"Let us hope so." Aurora bends down, and kisses Leah on the forehead. "Be safe, Mother." 

"Be safe, Aurora." Leah leans her head against the banister and watches as her daughter dashes up the stairs. She thinks on how blessed she is to be mother to such a brave girl.

***

Leah wakes to the feeling of a cool cloth on her face.

“Mother?”

Leah blinks her eyes open. Aurora is leaning over her, dabbing at her brow, a look of concern clouding her face.

“What happened?” Leah asks, reaching out to touch her daughter's face. Aurora's hair is wild, and her face is covered in soot. Other than that, thankfully, she appears to be unscathed. 

"The battle is over," Aurora says, smiling softly. 

"And Maleficent?" Leah finds herself asking. "Is she alright?"

“All is well." Aurora touches her mother's hand, and adds, "Though you do not look well yourself." 

Before Leah can argue with her daughter, Aurora turns her attention to a young man with a beaked nose who is carrying a pitcher of water and a loaf of bread in their direction. Like Aurora, he is covered head-to-toe in soot. Aurora smiles up at him as he hands her the provisions, and then immediately orders Leah to eat and drink.

"I'm fine," Leah says, waving the bread away.

"You passed out, Mother," Aurora says, crossly. "You must eat something."

Seeing that her daughter will not relent, Leah takes a piece of bread. As she nibbles at the crust, she stares at the man who brought it. He looks somehow familiar, though she cannot quite place his face. “Who is this?” she asks.

“Oh, I nearly forgot!" Aurora says, her face lighting up. "This is Diaval, mother. Maleficent turned him into a dragon and he fought off fifty men at once!”

At this, the man blushes. "I would not say fifty - " he begins, but Leah cuts him off.

“However many men it was, that was very brave of you, Diaval.”

“Thank you, Your Highness," he murmurs, bowing low to her. 

“I should be thanking you, sir," Leah smiles broadly. She has always loved the idea of dragons.

Aurora and Diaval spend the next half hour or so forcing bread and water upon Leah, and soon she has strength enough to get up from the staircase. Diaval and Aurora stand on either side of Leah, each holding an elbow to support her, but all three pause in their efforts at the sound of approaching footsteps. When Leah turn her heads toward the doorway, she is met by a magnificent sight. 

Leah finds that she must sit back down at the sight of Maleficent's great wings outstretched behind her.

Aurora runs over to Maleficent, and half-drags her towards their small gathering on the staircase. "Where have you been?" Aurora asks, almost accusingly, though there is a smile dancing on her lips. 

"I wished to give you some time together," Maleficent says. With a sly smile, she adds, "And I wanted to stretch my wings."

As if to demonstrate, Maleficent gives her wings a contented shake, and their feathers rustle like the leaves of a hundred trees before a storm. It is all too wondrous for Leah to believe - an unexpected laugh escapes her lips at the sound, which draws the stare of Maleficent. 

"You - you are well?" Leah asks after a moment, stumbling over her words, heaven knows why.

Maleficent bows her head in response. "I am well. Though you do not - "

Leah waves Maleficent's words away. "I am fine. Truly." 

Maleficent arches a disbelieving eyebrow, which Leah chooses to ignore. Instead of arguing with Maleficent, she swallows quickly, and asks the question that has been itching at the back of her mind ever since she woke up. “What of Stefan?”

Leah watches as both Aurora and Diaval turn to look at Maleficent. Aurora opens her mouth, as if she wishes to say something. Maleficent, however, pays them no mind - she looks only at Leah. 

“He is dead," Maleficent says softly. 

“I am glad of it," Leah murmurs, after a moment. She means it, though for some reason she still bursts into tears. 

***

"You're - leaving?"

Leah thinks her heart nearly stops. Her hands reaches out for Aurora's, and when she grasps it, she decides then and there to never let it go. 

"Not without you, Mother," Aurora says, tilting her head to the side. She stares up at Leah in confusion before letting out a tinkling laugh. "Did you think the three of us were going to go to the Moors and leave you behind?"

Leah swallows. "I do not think that I could live in the Moors - "

"Oh, don't be ridiculous," Maleficent half-growls, inserting herself into their conversation, as had been her growing habit these past few days. Leah does not mind it, usually, but occasionally the unthoughtful way Maleficent speaks irks her. Diaval seems to share her sentiment, for Leah notices that he gives Maleficent a reprimanding nudge in the side. At this, Leah's momentary anger dissipates and she turns to Maleficent, quite determined to be calm.

“I am sick, Maleficent," Leah says slowly. "I have been for a long time.”

Leah feels Aurora tighten her grip on her hand, while Maleficent stares at Leah for a long moment. There is a flash in her green eyes that makes Leah's heart jump, and then it is gone. When Maleficent finally breaks the silence between them, it is with an unexpected statement: “Well, then, it is settled. It is no longer a question - you are coming with us."

"But how - "

"The Moors are not dangerous, Leah, though perhaps you have been taught that they are," Maleficent says, with a half-teasing grin. "The air is fresh, the water is clear, and there are herbs there that can cure even the harshest maladies.”

“And there are fairies!" Aurora adds with a smile.

Maleficent nods solemnly, though a smile dances in her lips. “And there are fairies.”

Leah looks about her at Maleficent, Diaval, and her darling Aurora. Just three days ago, she had only her handmaid Maria for companionship. And now it feels as if her heart would soon burst from too much happiness.

“I - I will come, if you will have me.”

Maleficent smiles, and Leah feels an unexpected blush upon her face. “We will have you.”

***

Leah's hair is no longer dull, brittle, and brown - it is long and white, and shines in the sunlight.

Leah's limbs no longer shake from small exertions - she runs through the glades and meadows with an agility she has not known since childhood.

Leah's nights are no longer filled with cold sweats and bad dreams - she sleeps soundly 'til morning, curled up beside Maleficent.

Leah is happy.

She questioned the happiness at first. It came so freely, so wondrously, that she hardly trusted it to last -but it did. Not only did it last, but it blossomed and continued to grow, and grow, and grow. 

And now, a year has passed, and it is summertime.

The meadows are filled with colorful and fragrant blooms. Leah teaches Aurora to braid wild clover into hair, a skill Leah's own mother had taught her, and they spend the following weeks practicing on whoever will let them. Phillip loves it, sitting for hours before Aurora and Leah's nimble fingers. Diaval pretends not to enjoy it, but Leah can tell that he secretly does. Maleficent only lets them put flowers in her hair just before she falls asleep. "They give me good dreams," she tells them. 

Now, the sun is setting, a muted orange over the treetops. Leah and Maleficent sit atop their favorite tree, overlooking the field in which Diaval, Phillip, and Aurora are playing. The fireflies are beginning to wink in the evening air, and Leah hears the faint sound of laughter as the three attempt to catch the little insects between their palms. Leah runs her fingers through Maleficent's hair, and Maleficent lets out a contented sigh.

"We are a silly sort of family, are we not?" Leah whispers, weaving a string of honeysuckle into Maleficent's hair.  

Maleficent reaches up, and covers Leah's hands with her own. "Why, yes, my dear. I do believe we are."

**Author's Note:**

> So, uh, I un-killed Aurora's mother, Queen Leah!!


End file.
